Conservative critics have criticized Justice Sotomayor’s decision to reject Hobby Lobby’s request for an emergency injunction on the birth control benefit under the ACA. The question before her was: Are Hobby Lobby’s rights so indisputably clear that an emergency injunction was required? She answered that question correctly: no.

Governor Brian Schweitzer vetoed a bill that would have prohibited coverage of abortion in state insurance exchanges; the wife of Kermit Gosnell is released on house arrest; Justice Sotomayor will visit a birthing center/Head Start provider in DC next week; and could HPV contribute to lung cancer?

Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor has just been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a vote of 13 to 6. Only one Republican on the Committee voted in favor of her nomination, Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. Watch video of the roll call vote.

Surrounded by senators dripping with condescension, Judge Sotomayor responded with respect, nuance and a solid grounding in the law – to the point where the hearings sometimes felt like a high school civics class.

During a hearing that ranged from questions on judicial temperament and private property to the role of precedent in court decisions and Sotomayor’s decision on the use of nunchucks, the most direct, probing, and potentially telling questions came from Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina). Among them Graham asked: “Is abortion a public health issue?”

Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” in Roe v. Wade, was arrested at the confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor among a wave of anti-abortion protesters who lined the sidewalks outside the Senate office buildings.